Wallace Beery Movies

Want to know the best Wallace Beery movies?  How about the worst Wallace Beery movies?  Curious about Wallace Beery box office grosses or which Wallace Beery movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Wallace Beery movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Wallace Beery (1885-1949) was an American Oscar® winning actor.  Beery has an incredible 241 acting credits on his IMDb page.  Sadly were not able to find box office grosses on many of his silent movies in the 1910s and 1920s.  We did find box office information on all of his movies from 1930 to 1949…as well as handful of his silent movies.  This page will rank Wallace Beery movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Shorts, cameos and many of his silent movies were not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request by Søren.

Wallace Beery in his Oscar winning role in 1931’s The Champ

Wallace Beery Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Wallace Beery Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies any way you want.

  • Sort Wallace Beery movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Wallace Beery movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Wallace Beery movies by domestic box office rank
  • Sort Wallace Beery movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Wallace Beery movie received and how many Oscar® wins each movie won.
  • Sort Wallace Beery movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
 
Joan Crawford and Wallace Beery in 1932’s Grand Hotel

Possibly Interesting Facts About Wallace Beery

1. Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was born in Clay County, Missouri in 1885.

2. At the age of 16 Wallace Beery ran away from home and joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant elephant trainer.

3. At the age of 19 Wallace Beery joined his brother, Noah Beery, in New York.  He soon after began appearing on Broadway.  By the time he was 30 he was appearing in silent movies.

4. Wallace Beery was married 2 times.  Her first marriage was to actress Gloria “Sunset Blvd.” Swanson from 1916 to 1919.  His second marriage was to Rita Gilman from 1924 to 1939.  Gilman and Beery had one child…..a daughter named Carol Ann.

5. Wallace Beery’s nephew was Noah Beery, Jr.  Noah Beery Jr. had 173 IMDb credits…..but he is best remembered for playing James Garner’s dad in the television show The Rockford Files.

6. Wallace Beery was nominated for two Best Actor Oscars®.  Beery first nomination was for 1930’s The Big House.  He won the Best Actor Oscar® for 1931’s The Champ.  Beery shared the Oscar® win with Frederic March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)..though legend has it that Beery actually got one less vote than March….but the rules at the time declared it a tie…so they both got Oscars®.

7. Wallace Beery almost played the title role in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz but due to other film roles at MGM, he was forced to turn down the role.  Beery turned down the role of Captain William Bligh in 1935’s Mutiny on the Bounty  because he was unwilling to work with Clark Gable.

8.  Wallace Beery insisted on being paid $1 more than any other MGM star. In 1932 he was paid  $10,001 a week. That made him the highest-salaried actor in the world at the time.

9.  From 1916 to 1951 Wallace Beery held the world’s record for the largest black sea bass. He caught the fish off California’s Santa Catalina Island.

10. Check out Wallace Berry‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Adjusted Worlwide Box Office Grosses on 21 Wallace Beery Movies

  1. China Seas (1935) $287.60 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  2. Grand Hotel (1932) $283.20 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  3. Tugboat Annie (1933) $268.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  4. Hell Divers (1931) $256.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  5. A Date With Judy (1948) $254.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  6. Treasure Island (1934) $237.90 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  7. Dinner at Eight (1933) $225.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  8. The Big House (1930) $221.90 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  9. Stand Up And Fight (1939) $221.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  10. The Bowery (1933) $209.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  11. Min and Bill (1931) $209.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  12. Stablemates (1938) $198.10 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  13. Viva Villa! (1934) $196.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  14. West Point Of The Air (1935) $131.90 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  15. The Secret Six (1931) $118.10 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  16. The Mighty McGurk (1947) $110.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  17. Jackass Mail (1942) $108.10 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  18. A Lady’s Morals (1930) $98.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  19. Way For A Soldier (1930) $82.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  20. Alias A Gentleman (1948) $75.20 million in adjusted worldwide box office
  21. Big Jack (1949) $49.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.  Golden Globe® is a registered trademark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.

Steve’s Wallace Beery YouTube Video

 

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51 thoughts on “Wallace Beery Movies”

  1. Cogerson & Steve

    Wallace Beery made two Technicolor films. Salute to the Marines in 1943, and A Date with Judy in 1948. Anyone have an opinion as to how much color helped his looks?

    Reply

      1. Steve

        Yeah, I was reminded concerning Beery and color what one critic said about another actor when he made his first color movie–“It didn’t help. You could still see him.”

        Reply

      2. Hey Steve….I saw a picture of a young Robert Redford in black and white…and shockingly he looked like Wallace Beery….lol.

        Reply

    2. Hey John….thanks for the color movie information….I wonder what he thought of his two color movies? I have not seen either of those movies…..but in answer to your question…..not thinking he would have been mistaken for Cary Grant. For some reason he always reminded me of W.C. Fields…..which I find interesting because Beery and Fields were the first two choices to play The Wizard of Oz.

      Reply

  2. Cogerson

    What stands out for me about Beery is his status as a go-to character actor in the 1920’s. I hadn’t realized he had been that successful until I found a source for cheap DVD’s of silent films ($5) and was pleasantly surprised to find that most were excellent copies. So I have been able to watch a wide range of silent films. Beery pops up in a lot of the best, and in good roles. He was Magua in the 1920 The Last of the Mohicans, Richard the Lion-Hearted in the Fairbanks Robin Hood (a very good film), a pirate in The Sea Hawk, Challenger in The Lost World, etc., etc.

    He became a big star at MGM in the 1930’s. Between 1930 & 1935 he seemed to end up in almost all their biggies. After that, he seemed to do his own thing in sort of his own genre of movies. I read an article from the late forties which claimed his movies always made money. Don’t know how accurate that is.

    The movie which really jump-started his career is The Big House. Chester Morris got top billing but Beery dominates the movie as a rough convict who murdered his wife. The scene in which he regrets having fed her ant poison is priceless. No one could slobber like Wally.

    Reply

    1. Hey John
      1. Glad you found and commented on your requested Wallace Beery page.
      2. It seems he was a very popular supporting character…..and he appeared in some of the biggest hits of 1920s.
      3. I tried pretty hard to find box office information on The Last of the Mohicans and the Robin Hood sequel…Richard the Lion Hearted….though I came up with nothing.
      4. Yep…The Big House saved his career. I have not seen that one….but it is now on my list of movies to watch.
      5. As for all of his movies made money….. I do have some of that info in my MGM ledger…..let’s The Big House was 112% profitable, A Lady’s Morals was 47% in the red,
      Way For A Sailor was 68% in the red, Min and Bill was 224% profitable, Viva Villa was 15% profitable, West Point of the Air was 44% profitable, Dinner At Eight was 229% profitable, Grand Hotel was 135% profitable, Tugboat Annie was 197% profitable and China Seas was 57% profitable. …..so it looks like many of his movies were profitable…but certainly not all of his movies.
      Thanks for a good comment.

      Reply

      1. Cogerson

        Thanks for putting out the Wallace Beery page. I didn’t remember that I requested it. Getting old. There are some comments about having seem Beery movies. Of your list, I have seen 21 including the entire UMR top ten. Why is this? Well, back in the late fifties and early sixties movies from Beery’s era were dumped onto TV. They were shown all the time, especially weekend afternoons and in the evenings. There was good prime time TV, but syndication of the better TV shows hadn’t really begun yet, so the old movies were the only show in town unless you wanted to watch talking heads about whether the governor could get his agenda through the legislature (and in my case in a neighboring state as I lived in Wisconsin but the stations were from the twin cities). With the winter temperature in Wisconsin often sub-zero, well, I watched a lot of movies and became a buff and have continued to be a buff. Of his silents, I haven’t sought out his movies, but he has tended to be in a lot of the biggies in suporting roles.

        Reply

        1. Hey John
          1. Well….it was a John that requested the Wallace Beery page….I guess it is possible we have another John running around.
          2. Either way….thanks for checking out our Beery page.
          3. Congrats on being the current leader in our tally contest that determines who has seen the most movies of the star.
          4. The leaders…John 21, Flora 12, Steve 10, Laurent 7, Cogerson 4….not an impressive showing for me.
          5. So Wallace and Wisconsin and Winter helped you see the very best of Beery’s career.
          6. It is amazing what you will watch….especially back then when the choices were so limited.
          Thanks for the re-visit.

          Reply

  3. Hi Bruce, you’ve left out nearly 200 Wallace Beery films, the best ones too. I don’t know what to say, I’ll need some time to recover from the shock…

    A few decades ago I bought a Beery Wallace film on Super 8, The Lost World (1925), the entire film for £24, come to think of it that’s a lot of money spent on a silent film in 1979. I was a huge fan of King Kong (1933) and was curious to see stop-motion maestro Willis O’Brien’s previous biggie which I never got to see on the telly here in the UK.

    I’ve seen 10 of the 53 films listed, favorites include Treasure Island, Viva Villa, Three Ages, China Seas, Robin Hood and The Lost World.

    I wasn’t a big fan of The Champ, or the remake starring Jon Voight, just not my cup of earl grey. Grand Hotel and Dinner at Eight were good films and packed with stars of that era.

    A Date With Judy was pleasant enough, I think it was Wally Bleary’s only color film? Where’s our Technicolor expert?

    Good work Bruce, enjoyed the trivia too. Vote Up!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve…..sorry I dropped the ball….I guess you will have to go to TheNumbers.com to find those grosses on the missing 200 Beery movies. They currently have two Beery movies listed…but I am sure the rest will be there very soon…..lol.

      You know I am not surprised you have The Lost World on 8 mm. Do you (a) still have your 8 mm projector? (b) if you do how are those 8 mm movies holding out and (c) if yes was the first two answers…..how often do you break out the 8 mm and watch it?

      Current tally counts…..Flora 12, Steve 10, Laurent 7, Cogerson 4

      I liked Beery’s Champ more than Voight’s Champ…..I liked Grand Hotel and Dinner At Eight….though I think he gave a more memorable performance in Dinner at Eight…he and Harlow made a good team.

      I will have to check out A Date With Judy…..I doubt that Beery made many color movies….that is a great question for job.

      Thanks for the visit and the comment.

      Reply

      1. Hi Bruce, I still have my old Eumig 8mm projector but it’s been ages since I last used it, not this decade at least. It’s a bit of a hassle setting everything up, the screen, the reels – I remember once I didn’t hook up the back reel properly and my carpet was covered in 8mm film. I was thinking of buying a projector for my DVDs and Blu-rays, they’re not expensive, but I hate turning off the lights, I start to nod off. I’m getting oooold Bruce! 🙂

        Reply

        1. To your other question – I think my Super 8 films are still in usable condition, I don’t think they rot away. Some of the titles – Alien, Close Encounters, Star Wars, Jaws, Ben-Hur, Planet of the Apes, King Kong (1933), One Million Years BC, 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, The Jungle Book (1967), The Dirty Dozen, Rollerball, The Devil Rides Out, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Omen.

          Those are ‘Super 8 digests’, not the entire film. Typically about 16mins in length, some like Star Wars are in 2 parts, totalling 32mins. 8mm was expensive. A 16min digest would cost around £30 in the late 70s inflation adjusted that comes to well over £100 in todays money for just over a quarter of an hour of film.

          Reply

          1. Hey Steve….you seem to have all the classics in your Super 8 films….thanks for the explanation on Super 8 digests…I was thinking those reels would be massive to have an entire movie. I can picture you dragging out all the equipment and checking out their status in the upcoming weeks…lol. That is indeed expensive. I remember when VHS was 89.99 a tape. It was expensive but true fans gladly forked over that money. I imagine if you had the entire Star Wars movie on Super 8s…..you would have been very popular.

            Funny you mentioned…Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind….my little girls and I watched most of that movie yesterday. Son #2 never would watch that one….so I thought the girls would bail quickly. I showed them the Dreyfuss railroad scene first…and I thought they would watch it…humor me….tell me that it was good…and then leave…instead…they wanted to watch more. So I skipped ahead to the finale with music between the humans and the aliens. Then we went back and watched the mom lose Barry to the aliens…..then we went back to the end Dreyfuss going crazy…..and then the march on the mountain by Dreyfuss…..all the skipping around we did was strange way to watch it…but we probably watched 90 minutes of the movie…..all was fine until the 7 year old told mommy that she was afraid the aliens were coming to get her…..then mommy bear got mad at me….lol.

        2. Hey Steve….thanks for the information on your 8 mm viewing habits. I can imagine…it would take a strong desire to set all that up……maybe a missing reel from King Kong…..I think home entertainment systems are pretty close to the theater experience now….so going back to 8 mm would take something big. But I remember watching old vacation movies on my dad’s projector…it was so loud my dad was practically screaming his comments. My friend…we are all getting older….lol.

          Reply

          1. Hi Bruce, at least you didn’t have to watch your DVDs in German which is what I had to when I was living with Sandra. We’d be watching Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant chatting in German and I’m reading the English subtitles. Weird.

            I wonder if my Super 8 movies are worth anything on ebay, do people still collect 8mm?

            Btw the reels are quite small compared to 35mm theatrical film, I would rent complete films like Psycho on Super 8 for a week and it would arrive in a plastic box containing 5 or 6 reels about a foot in diameter.

          2. Hey Steve….mmmmm….that sounds like an interesting way to watch a movie. I wonder if they got somebody to match Grant’s stumbling way of talking….that probably made it difficult to dub. You could be sitting on a fortune with those Super 8s…..somebody like George Lucas could be stalking the Earth looking for them….and would be willing to pay a king’s ransom to get them. I wonder what happened to those reels you rented….did the wear out? are they in a vault? Were they destroyed? We might never know. Thanks for sharing your early movie watching experiences…..back when it was easy to watch a movie. Now you have to either click the button that says “download”…or even worse….”walk over to the dvd player….hit eject…and then “search” for the remote…..man it was so much easier back then to watch a movie…lol.

  4. Hello Bruce,

    Wallace Beery is totally forget in France today. But I’ve seen 7 movies withe him. And I liked the seven. He was a very good actor. My favorites movies are The Champ and The Bowery.

    Reply

    1. Hey Laurent….I think he is pretty much forgotten in the United States too. Your tally of 7 tops my low total of 4. I liked the Champ too…..but I have not seen The Bowery…..I will have to check that one out…thanks for sharing your thoughts on Wallace Beery.

      Reply

  5. I have seen 12 Wallace Beery movies. All of them are in the top 20.

    My favourites aree Grand Hotel, The Champ, and Dinner at Eight.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora….thanks for the visit, the comment and the tally count. 12 has my tally count by 8….as I have only seen 4 of his movies. I have seen all of your favorites…..so they are in my Top 4 too….lol. Current tally results

      Flora 12
      Steve 10
      Laurent 7
      Cogerson 4

      🙂

      Reply

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